I came across this on the BBC website.What a great idea! Close more roads. Make more of them one-way/dead ends. Our own road has a school, playground, library, nursery, post office etc. yet cars regularly drive down it at anything from 50 - 70 mph even when the children are walking to school.
I really think more green areas, parks, playgrounds etc. are a must.
I was lucky when I was growing up, we had a great park up the top of our road with a stream in it to go "sticklebacking" with nets and another park a few blocks down with a large playground and football pitches.
Having safe areas to play, ride bikes, hang out with friends, climb trees (health and safety alert!!!) - all this is so important.
There is a playground near us which has been slowly ripped apart year on year. The climbing frame went, then something else, and another, and so on. Now it's an empty shell fit only for dog poop.
Playgrounds and green spaces aren't "sexy" when it comes to government and parliament. Yet they are what really matters. If Blair had spent as much time getting state of the art playgrounds in every community as he spent on starting dodgy wars or pushing through homosexual rights more of the children in society might be a little more well-balanced.
Now I'm off to play on the swings. ;-)
..and our playgrounds had tall slides,metal everything and tarmac! no Health and safety stuff for us and always lots of arms and legs in plaster come september.Mind you as my daughter says at least her and her brothers got to be free range kids growing up in a little village in the Valleys, summers playing in the river and walking up the mountains.
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